Page 77 of Always You (A Lilac Bay Novel)

CHAPTER 14

Iwoke up the next morning to a splitting headache and a throat as dry as the Sahara.

“Shit,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes. The living room was bright as hell and my position on the couch was causing a crick in my neck that I was sure I would be feeling all day. Why was I out here? I never fell asleep out in the living room—

My eyes snapped all the way open to see that Andrew was sitting on the far end of the couch, my bare feet in his lap, his head back against the cushion. He was snoring softly, Gordie curled up next to him.

In spite of the pain in my head and neck I smiled at the sight of him. He looked like an overgrown kid when he was sleeping. Was that drool on his chin? He was still wearing his suit but had ditched the jacket and tie, the top few buttons of his shirt undone.

Andrew in a suit. Hmm. That was a nice image. He flashed though my mind, the way he had looked yesterday, right before he asked me to dance—and the whole night came crashing back.

My mom showing up, trying to drag her to my apartment. Her almost hitting me. Jake getting her into the cop car. The terrible things she’d said. Andrew showing up to take me home.

“Hey.” My eyes snapped back to his face to see that he was awake now, watching me. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I pulled myself up into a sitting position, feeling overwhelmingly vulnerable knowing that he had been watching me while those thoughts raced through my head. “You want some coffee?”

“You don’t have to—”

But I was already up off the couch, trying to ignore the way my head was pounding. I just needed coffee. And a few buckets worth of water. And, if I was honest with myself, a little distance.

To my consternation, Andrew followed me into the kitchen.

“I was just joking about you feeding me in the morning,” he said, and I managed a small laugh. “Riley, seriously, come sit down.”

“I have a headache,” I said. “I could really use the coffee.”

“Well, why don’t you let me do it, then?” he said. “Gordie, seriously? Move!”

I finally stopped moving to glare at him, a hand on my hip. “Are you yelling at my cat?”

“Look at him, he’s all tangled up in my feet. He’ll trip me.”

“He’s hungry,” I said. “And he’s overjoyed to realize that the man of his dreams has spent the night.”

“It’s nice to see at least one of you is.”

We glared at each other across the kitchen for a beat, but then Andrew’s mouth twitched and I was laughing and just like that the tension I’d felt on the couch was gone.

“Why don’t you quit your bitching and feed him? Then he’ll chill.”

I made the coffee as Andrew got out Gordie’s food dish, carefully measuring the scoops while the cat went ballistic at his feet. It was clearly too much for his little kitten mind, to not only find Andrew in his house first thing in the morning but to actually have his idol feed him, too.

“’Scuse me,” Andrew said, stepping around me to fill up the water dish. Once he’d set Gordie’s things on the floor, he grabbed two mugs from the cabinet and pulled down the sugar bowl before moving over to the fridge to grab milk.

“I could do eggs,” he said, peering into the fridge.

“I thought you couldn’t cook?”

He grinned that smirky grin at me. “I can cook eggs.”

So he scrambled up a few eggs while I put bread in the toaster and got the dishes out. In just a few moments we were sitting at the table, Gordie twisting himself around Andrew’s feet, his own breakfast either forgotten or finished.

“Do you have any Tylenol?” Andrew asked, rubbing his forehead, and I popped up from my chair.

“No acetaminophen when you’ve been drinking. I’ll get you something else.”

He raised an eyebrow but didn’t question me, probably guessing it was too soon to bring up my years of experience in taking care of people who’d had too much to drink.